As far as the boys are concerned I’ve been doing stuff with them using a big blue tarp. Zeloso delights in lifting it off the ground, carrying it and swirling it. Zelador is much more sedate. He understands that I’d like him to trot a circle which includes him stepping on the tarp and occasionally stopping on it…all of this at liberty.
Every chance he gets Zeloso teaches me to present something and say “thank you”. Don’t go adding things. Just rejoice in the initial understanding Zeloso offers.
There’s a TV program which I finally watched for the first time last night. It’s “Heartland” and features horses. There was a man who returned from the war in a wheelchair. He used to be a champion rodeo cowboy. Well, the female horse person in the show got him into the saddle from a platform with two men helping. The horse took a few steps and off came the guy.
That’s when the female did a little thinking. She taught the horse to lie down, then get up on command. She convinced the paralyzed man (who owned the horse and competed on it before the war) to come to the arena one more time. With no other helpers to muddle things she had the horse lie down (with his tack on) and the guy positioned his wheelchair really close and got on. The horse stood up on command. The man stayed on! He said, “Now what?” And she said what Zeloso has been trying to teach me, “That’s it!”
And, that’s a big lesson to learn.